Buying a home is probably the biggest investment you'll ever make and it's not an instant process. It's important you're financially prepared well in advance to get approved for a mortgage with the best interest rate possible. Unfortunately, you might be guilty of some poor financial decisions that could jeopardize your home buying dream. It's easy to fall into bad spending habits that ultimately hurt your credit score and hamper your ability to qualify for a loan. Before you embark on your home buying endeavor, ditch these bad habits immediately to kick-start the process.

Overusing Credit Cards

Curtail your credit card spending or you might find yourself buried in credit card debt, and it could be difficult to dig your way out. Whipping out the plastic to pay for items you can't afford to pay for with cash can become addictive, especially for impulsive shoppers. Ideally, you should use less than 30% of your available credit and only use credit cards for purchases you can pay for in full each billing cycle. Reducing your credit card debt gives your credit score a boost, which makes you more attractive to lenders. Plus, relying too heavily on credit becomes a crutch that could put you in a tight position when you add a mortgage payment.

Paying Minimums Only

Along this same vein, only paying the minimum amount due on credit cards and other financial obligations like loans, keeps you in debt. Again, buying a home is difficult when you have too much debt. Plus, you're overpaying for anything you bought on credit due to the interest attached to balances you carry over each month, especially on high interest credit cards. Before investing in real estate, get your spending in check and lower your balances.

One great way to pay off debts faster is to double up on payments. If you get paid twice a month, pay the minimum amount due each pay period, instead of just once per month. Knock out your debt even faster by applying any bonuses, tax refunds or other unexpected funds towards your debt until it's paid off. Then, stash the money you were using on your monthly payments into savings until you're ready to contact a real estate agent and look for that perfect home listing.

Delinquent Payments

Even worse than only paying the minimums on your credit cards and other debt is paying late or failing to pay the monthly payment at all. Missing even one payment negatively impacts your credit score, as does late payments. This includes ignoring your student loan payments, which have more lenient terms than other loan types to make them easier to repay.

Too Much Credit

Although bad credit hurts your mortgage application, too much credit can also damage it. If buying a home is your future goal, avoid opening multiple credit accounts, especially credit cards, which often offer very tempting perks or hard to refuse bonuses. Even if you don't use your cards much, just having an open line of credit available can ding your credit score. Open just a few cards to use, and pay off, regularly and resist opening every credit card offer you get in the mail. The number of cards you should have depends on your personal situation, but three seems to be a commonly accepted amount.

Ignoring Credit Scores

When you're buying a home, one of the biggest criteria lenders use to decide whether you're a good risk is your credit score. Your payment history, the amounts you owe on each credit account, newly opened lines of credit and other factors all go into determining your credit score. The minimum credit score needed for buying a home varies depending on your lender and other factors like your income and amount of down payment. However, popular loan programs like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac currently require scores of 620 or higher and even FHA loan lenders typically won't accept scores lower than 580.

Surprisingly, not having credit is as bad as having too much credit or even bad credit. While you never want to overextend yourself, use credit wisely to build the credit score you need. Switching jobs frequently can also impede your dream of owning real estate. Buying a home means committing to a savings plan to stockpile money for your down payment and closing costs. This is tough to do when you continually swap jobs. Steady employment also translates to stability, which is a definite characteristic lenders want to see on your application.